ATLANTA — Delivery trucks are driving up concerns in one Atlanta neighborhood.
Kim Link, one of the community members who reached out to 11Alive, said it started about a month ago in the Hills Park neighborhood where she's lived for five years.
"We started noticing increased delivery van trucks coming up Annie Street and taking a right on Carroll Drive," she explained of the road that only has a sidewalk on one side. "And there are usually ten to fifteen or more of these vans that all come at once."
Link said the vans are backing up intersections and streets in the neighborhood, noting it's also a safety concern for pedestrians.
"And it’s not just Hills Park, it’s also Adams Crossing and the Bolton neighborhood," Link said.
She explained there is a simple solution.
"When they built the facility, they told the neighborhood it would not impact us. They would not use our residential streets for through traffic, but that’s exactly what they’re doing," said Link. "They built, enhanced, widened Thomas Street specifically for their delivery vans, but they’re not using it, and we don’t know why."
Atlanta City Councilmember Dustin Hillis echoed her concerns.
He sent 11Alive the following statement in part:
Since Amazon has moved into its new distribution center off Marietta Road, my office and APD Zone 1 have received nothing but complaints, contrary to what was promised to us and the neighborhood residents during development.
The Amazon drivers are not only utilizing small local streets, some near schools, to cut through, but they are doing so extremely recklessly, putting lives in danger. The developer constructed a new, wide street (Thomas Street) with signalized access to the very large Marietta Boulevard, which they should be using, instead of small local streets but are not.
Hillis went on to explain that he, Atlanta Police and state Sen. Jason Esteves have brought the problem to the attention of Amazon several times but have had no luck. He said he is now exploring legal options with both APD and the City Attorney's office, as well as implementing traffic calming measures through Atlanta Department of Transportation.
"I am dedicated to improving traffic safety across our city and certainly do not want to see a death or serious injury caused by an Amazon delivery driver, as has occurred in other metro Atlanta counties," Hillis said in the statement.
As for Link, she said she wants the drivers to stop using Carroll Drive and use Thomas Street instead. She's not the only one who feels this way, as there are signs in the neighborhood asking delivery drivers to do just that.
"I think the next couple weeks are going to be a real nightmare if they don’t start using another route," Link said.
11Alive also reached out to Amazon, who said it opened the delivery station on Marietta Road back in August, about the complaints and concerns. Here's what they had to say:
Since launching the delivery station on Marietta Road back in August,
We’ve been working hard to streamline our local routing, and we apologize for any issues this has caused the community. We’re confident that recent actions we’ve taken will go a long way in addressing any lingering concerns. We also expect anyone delivering on our behalf to adhere to traffic laws and will look into any complaints that drivers aren’t doing so.
11Alive followed up, asking for more details about the "recent actions." We have not heard back from Amazon yet.